Roseville girls win big over Casa Roble

Roseville High's varsity girls' basketball team improved to 3-8 with a convincing 57-16 victory over Casa Roble on Friday. The young Tigers have had their growing pains early in the season, but they looked good in all facets against the Rams, who fell to 2-10 on the season. Even with Kalli Watson playing on the junior varsity team and the Roseville varsity squad only playing with six players, the Tigers dominated. Kalani Pham was the team's leading scorer with 22 points, but Roseville had other contributors, as four players scored at least eight points and all six players scored. Calee Bookhart scored nine points, while Ashlynn Kelley, Natalie Garske and Emelia Musquez each contributed eight points to the team victory. "I liked how we were able to come out and execute," Roseville coach Justin Garcia said. "I called a couple timeouts to try to run a different play or to test their listening skills because in the games that matter, that's the stuff that matters. Once we got up, I wanted to focus on execution and they did a phenomenal job of executing and staying focused." Garcia has been pleased with the play of Garske, who played her first game of the season Tuesday against Granite Bay. "That was her first game in three years because she quit her freshman year," Garcia said. "She had seven points, eight rebounds, one steal and two turnovers. Tonight there wasn't a ball within 10 feet of her that she wasn't diving on the floor for. She was with me the other day at 5 a.m. in the gym working on her shot. She's hungry." Roseville started the week with a 62-50 loss to Granite Bay on Tuesday. Trailing 14-3 after a bad first quarter, Roseville played the Grizzlies nearly evenly, 48-47. "We came out ready to play defensively, but we forgot to play offense," Garcia said. "We started off really cold from the field, something like 0-for-nine. I wasn't mad, though, because over the weekend we played the worst three games I've ever seen this team play and we turned it around against Granite Bay. Defensively, we brought the intensity that we needed so I told the team that game was like a win for us." Pham scored 22 points in the loss, while Bookhart added 10 and Garske chipped in seven. Roseville has one more game before Christmas, as they travel to Oakmont on Tuesday.